Saturday, April 26, 2014

YOU SAID WHAT?

Like me you probably get a lot of articles and newsclips that cross your desk every day. I try to sort them out and many of them are nothing more than an advertisement disguised as an article.

I had one cross my desk last week that I thought was so appropriate for our industry that I want to share some excerpts from it. The article was written by Lindsay Broder who is a very successful certified professional coach based in New York City. Her company is "The Occupreneur Coach". The title of her article is 7 Things You should Never Say To An Employee. Let me share some of those things with you. The 7 things are hers, the commentary is mine.

1. I'm the boss. Do as I say--Ever said that to a co-worker or employee? Ever heard someone say or have you said, "Do it my way or hit the highway". Most people I know that say this have their employees hit the highway because no one person has a monopoly on good ideas. Oh sure, there are times where you have an emergency job like a water leak or fire and you have to just take charge and give orders but people expect it then but not in the everyday routine.

2. You're lucky to have a job--No one really works well in a job where they are made to feel that they are indebted to the boss. Even in today's environment where jobs are not particularly easy to come by, your employees deserve your respect. If they aren't doing the job, train them, and if that doesn't work, take the disciplinary steps to eventually terminate them but sarcasim and comments such as this won't endear you to anyone. In fact, it make cause you to lose YOUR job.

3. If you don't like it, I'll find someone who does--You may be the boss or manager but making comments like this also makes you a jerk. In today's work environment, threatening employees doesn't work. It worked in my father's generation but today's work force does not respond in a positive way to that kind of threatening talk, nor should they.

4. Why are you the only one who has a problem with this?--My question here is have you trained them in the correct way to perform the task that you are asking them to perform? Remember the old saying--If the learner hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught? People don't like to be compared to other people so when you make a statement like this you are putting the person down and that never leads to a productive employee. No question, you will have some employees that just don't get it or are always complaining or grumbling. If that is the case, address the issue with them and take appropriate action in private but never get into a employee comparison situation. Your employees just might start comparing you as a boss that has a problem that other bosses haven't had. Think about it.

5. I don't have time for this--If you don't have time for this then maybe you shouldn't be the boss. Your job is to take the time for "this" and make sure all employees are properly trained and have the right tools and time allowed to do the job professionally for your customer. Here I go again, what does your training program look like?

6. You have no idea what stress is--Everybody has stress and what makes yours more important than the stress your employees have. This reminds of the time someone told me that you should never share your stress and problems with others---half of the people don't care and the other half are glad you have the problems. That comment has served me well through the years. Take heed.

7. Do you see that name on the door?--Yeah, so what? You may have built your company or department from the ground up investing your money and time--YOUR LIFE into the company but your are not God and throwing your weight around as if you are, only drives you employees away from you and builds resentment. Without your employees, what do you have, how do your service the clients? Your employees are the inventory you provide for your customers. My question to you is, are you providing your customers with a well trained, happy, smiling inventory every day when they go work in the buildings you service?

So there you have it, the 7 things never to say to your employees as presented by Lindsay Broder of the Occupreneur Coach. How did you do? Ever catch yourself saying any of those? If so, make a concerted effort to eliminate them from your vocabulary. If you never say them, congratulations, you are on the road to providing a positive place to work.

We had a super number of people that tuned in to our conference call on Buying and Selling Your Company. Hope you were able to join us. We'll alert you to upcoming topics of interest. We have several exciting new things on the horizon. We will roll each of them out as they are ready to go. Stay tuned.

Don't forget our weekly FREE pod casts at www.tripodcast.com.

Till next time.

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